Newbie and new tailgate fodder

[Jon]

Take plenty of pictures and see if you can visit a car museum or two, as I'm sure there's a few good ones down there. Oh and on another note, drop the big Q from your sig - Audi have never capitalised their all wheel drive moniker....

[Leonard Hatred]

Looking forward to the road trip report.
38MPG and 200BHP are pretty impressive even now, my mum's much less powerful 1.8 Accord barely scrapes 35MPG.

My 5 pot Audi coupe was surprisingly fuel efficient too, even driving hard. Shame it wasn't that fun to drive with its primitive rear suspension. I'd love to try a quattro.

[start]

Just did a search for the power figures, they are pretty impressive for 2.2 litres..

216 bhp, 161.1 kw @ 5700 rpm
torque 228 lb/ft, 309 nm @ 1950 rpm

How many horses and how many torques are still alive after 23 years is anyones guess !

[start]

Shit happens ! The drivers window regulator gave up the unequal struggle, a new one is ordered but will be too late arriving to get it fitted. That means a very long trip in a Suxuki Swift (2003 for teh pedantic)

[start]

Admission.. I have been posting the road trop on the brown forum I was going to put it here too, but it has taken about 4 days so far to post. so it's there for all to see and will not be repeated !

The Audi, got home and the window was repaired, collected the car and on the second start the ignition switch fell apart. I got home and had to disconnect the battery as the ign would not turn off. There it sits awaiting the arrival of a new barrel ( two ordered as ALL the forums say they will continually fall apart) It should be back running next week..hopefully.

[Jon]

You reckon it could be ready for Tuesday?! Got my folks going on to Aus and would love to whisk them up to the airport in style if you fancied a bit of a swap with a car of your choice from the fleet? Those photos posted up in brown do look good - I'll look forward to perusing through any that didn't make the cut sometime soon.

[start]

As you knowJon the audi was not ready Tuesday ! The new ign barrel arrived and car was duly pulled apart by a skilled mechanic. He fitted the new barrel and promptly snapped the pin at the rear off. No problem as I had two. When I delivered the second I had a look at the ignition switch that mounts behind the key and it was busted in time honoured Audi tradition. So one was ordered and a photo sent with the order. Next day the courier delivered, anticipation of actually driving the car was heightened, and then shattered as soon as the box was opened. Not the same part, more connections on it and it appeared to work differently. SHIT, I want this car going and it's now 11 am on the Wednesday before Easter weekend, It has to be going in 24 hrs or nothing for the weekend. There is only one thing for it, drive the Suzuki swiftly 150km to Auckland and sort it out !
The parts guys at Qualitat were tops, they worked out that the replacement was an upgraded part and carried the same part no. as the old one, they "almost" guaranteed it would work after we discused the parts. I left happily with the same part I had taken back and by 4pm the mechanic was able to say that if it all was ok the car would be finished "first thing". And it was, the switch and key barrel worked well . Thanks for the ride to collect it in your Citroen Jon, the Audi is now going well with no problems.

[start]

Well well, it went for a whole week and then yesterday, clouds of steam at the supermarket. A hose burst, it must have gone properly just before I got there, the "low water" warning had come on, and as it had done this before it was studiously ignored, and the temp guage was normal, along with oil temp. It is a small bypass hose that goes into the back of the waterpump, one end has a regular hose clamp but the other is a joint like a hydraulic hose , so it promises to be a pain! I will see about getting the hydraulic end removed and just a regular hose put on. Oh and thanks to whoever put the hose clamp on, you made sure it will be a bastard to get off when it should be a 1 minute job, it will be put back on so that it can be reached with a screwdriver instead of pulling half the engine to pieces Has anyone ever seen a right angled ratchet screwdriver because that is what it needs. I am also worrying about Kettle gaskets but I don't think it got very hot....hopefully!

[start]

An easy fix, the hydraulic hose type connection was removed with the pipe still on the car. The pipe was then a perfect fit for a small length of hose, fixed. When I looked closely (before attacking anything!) it was the pipework that takes water from the block to the turbo. It seems not to have cooked up anything but we shall see!
It aslo has a good cooling system for the turbo. Switch off when the engine is hot and an electric pump starts to circulate water and the fan blows cool air, that runs for a few minutes then all goes silent, job done.

[start]

A good hard run over the hills today, and all went perfectly, it just flew up the Kaimai ranges leaving all in its wake.